The moments that matter
Posted on Feb 4, 2025 by FEED Staff
A leader in dynamic ad insertion, Yospace offered advertisers a truly unforgettable Olympic Games by making the most of top-traffic moments
Sponsored editorial
Every four years since 1896, the Summer Olympics have enthralled audiences with the best of worldwide sport. From classic events like swimming and diving to recent additions like breaking (breakdancing), skateboarding, sport climbing and kayak cross. Since the advent of television and streaming, billions tune in to support their country’s star athletes – making the Games one of the largest, most unmissable opportunities for advertisers.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, which wrapped up this August, Yospace was central to the advertising effort – stitching four billion one-to-one addressable ads into live streams during the 19 days of the Games. Specialising in dynamic ad insertion, Yospace’s technology maximised monetisation for some of the biggest brands in North America, Europe and APAC, seeing high viewership across both traditional and fringe events.
Sport can be unpredictable, with some competitions like athletics lasting mere seconds and others minutes or even hours on end. Despite their frequent brevity, many events had an afterglow effect, with viewership lingering and sometimes even increasing during post-event coverage. This rang especially true for the women’s 100m final and men’s 100m final, both of which drove long streaming sessions lasting an hour post-race. The ad break an hour after the women’s race attracted more viewers than the one directly before the starting gun.
Viewership peaked when a local was performing; the men’s 200m final saw a boost of over 30% in competing countries. The men’s 200m butterfly saw an uptick in traffic, with a 14.7% boost in ad views while swimming fans watched Léon Marchand take gold. Over the following two hours, viewers stayed, witnessing another win for France in the men’s 200m breaststroke – delivering the Games’ most-watched ad break, which came 20 minutes after Marchand’s second record-setting victory.
The kayak cross debuted at Paris 2024, with a final that lasted 75 seconds. Holding novelty value for viewers, the event saw an 8% spike in traffic during this aquatic dash, with audiences remaining engaged after the race ended. “These trends show that, for the streaming and ad tech industry, the Olympics are all about seizing the key moments,” says Yospace CEO Tim Sewell, arguing “every second counts” when you have a captive audience.
Though Paris 2024 has come and gone, broadcasters and streamers are still reaping its benefits, thanks in large part to Yospace’s dynamic ad insertion. If nothing else, it shows that there’s money to be made at any moment, and the Games have a surplus of great ones.
